By Shumail Hassan

These-days, it is the word of every mouth that youth is our most valuable asset. Infact, we usually eulogize something so strongly and heavily that we sometimes feel remorse for that. From political parties to organizations working for basic human rights, everyone is obsessed with the idea ‘youngsters are our future. They will lead us in coming days.’ Let us take a bird’s eye view of different types of youngsters today. What they are doing and how they are living with their motives, prospects and plans to excel in this race of life.

1.       The Book Smarters

These students besides being the lovely ones of their parents are the pet children of their teachers because they bring good grades and respect their elders. They know that survival requires effort. They do not take part in extra-curricular activities just to excel in class academics. They however are brilliant but they have no widened canvass and their scope is relatively meagre. They cannot talk confidently and persuasively since they lack in it. They have no interest in current affairs.

2.       The Resourceful Club

These students are personally my favorite i.e. they know that survival is not merely important. They do not rely on their teachers and mentors. They tend towards extra-learning and sort of autodidacts. They take interest in Literature and Science equally. I am not just forcing you do so, but these become the best in the end. These students do their homework as for their contemporary worldly survival, but study further on their own. These students have sombre extra-curricular activities; they like to study the Quran, they want to know their life purpose religiously. What does Allah want of us? They like to study the scientific journals just to satisfy their thirst of knowledge. They, with their caliber, become the members of internationally recognized student-run organizations, magazines, websites, forums where ultimately they become the representatives of their country. These people are socially strong but the fact is they do not waste time at all. For them, doing vacation work is not important, they want to learn something out of it.

3.       The Idlers

These youngsters show totally a phase-shift of 180 degrees and lie on the opposite side of case. They waste their time indulging in the petty pursuits like they have interests include smoking, rapping(there isn’t anything bad with it but they start idealizing those gangsters-turned-rap-sters), one-wheeling like these students do not what they are doing and where they are being dragged(by themselves).

4.       The Analyzing Lot

These students are those who are reading YOUNG right now but couldn’t find themselves in any of the three categories.

(Note for readers: The article is written with some thoughts of adding comic sense to it. Do not take it seriously. We should try to be good students and play our part towards the development of PAKISTAN.)

Published in Young Nation magazine on August 6, 2016